Texas announces hiring of former Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle as new baseball HC

Jim Schlossnagle is officially the new head coach of the Texas Longhorns, leaving Texas A&M for the Aggies’ top in-state rival and future SEC foe.

The news out of Austin came hours after it was reported by Chip Brown, Kendall Rogers and others. Schlossnagle is sure to be asked about his feisty response to a question in the College World Series final press conference about rumors linking him to the Texas job. Schlossnagle’s decision to take the job after his strong postgame comments about Texas A&M have led to widespread social media criticism.

Meanwhile, at UT, the athletic department is thrilled to have Schlossnagle as the new head coach.  Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte was Schlossnagle’s boss from 2009-17 as TCU’s AD.

The two remained close friends after CDC moved on to take the Texas AD position in 2017. Schlossnagle remained TCU’s coach through 2021 before taking the A&M job.

“I’ve known Coach Schlossnagle for a long time, and there’s no better coach, program builder, and leader in the game, and the best part is he’s an even better person,” Del Conte said in a program release. “When we were looking for our next baseball coach, we knew Schloss would be the perfect choice, and we are beyond thrilled that he’s joining our Longhorn family. He’s a guy who obviously knows our state so well, is very familiar with our program’s rich and proud history and everything Texas Baseball is all about, and absolutely checks all the boxes for this critical position.

“He really understands every level of building a team, develops and gets the best out of his players and coaches, recruits with the best of them and is totally dialed into the holistic growth of the student-athletes in his program. Our players, our staff, the UT community and Longhorn Nation will absolutely love him. I can’t wait to get him started and for everyone to have a chance to meet him. The future of our program is in great hands, and I’m so excited to have Coach Schloss joining our elite group of coaches as we prepare to head into the Southeastern Conference.”

Introducing the new Head Coach of your Texas Longhorns, @CoachSchloss #HookEm pic.twitter.com/f1T0CH8cIt

— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) June 26, 2024

Drama aside, Schlossnagle a home run hire for Horns

It has been a wild past two days.

Texas announced its parting with David Pierce on Monday morning, hours before Texas A&M and Tennessee played the final game of the College World Series to decide 2024’s national champion.

Schlossnagle was asked postgame about the rumors linking him to Texas. The coach called the reporter “selfish” for asking the question and said he “took the Texas A&M job to never take another job again.”

In less than 48 hours, Texas went from having David Pierce as its coach to hiring away Jim Schlossnagle. It has made for some juicy headlines and spirited social media discourse.

All drama aside, Texas made a splash hire days before officially becoming an SEC school.

There are plenty of SEC programs that would be happy with what Pierce accomplished at Texas. He posted a .647 winning percentage (297-162), taking the Longhorns to 6 out of 7 NCAA Tournaments in his tenure. UT reached the College World Series three times under Pierce and played in an NCAA Super Regional last year.

While Pierce did get Texas to the College World Series, the Longhorns did not have the success in Omaha they desired. The program has won 6 national titles, with the last coming in 2005. The Longhorns last reached the CWS championship series in 2009, losing to LSU.

Schlossnagle will head to Austin fresh off not only coaching in the CWS finals, but picking up a Game 1 win. His accomplishments give Longhorns fans much more to be excited about than just poaching a rival coach.

Schlossnagle has a .677 all-time winning percentage (945-451), including a .685 mark at A&M (135-62). He has coached in 6 of the last 10 College World Series, tied for best in the NCAA with Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan. During that run, Schlossnagle has picked up 50 wins in NCAA Tournament play, the most among any coach.

Texas A&M had won 2 CWS games before Schlossnage took the job. He tripled the number in just three seasons.

Joining baseball’s top conference has Texas wanting more. Schlossnagle looks like the man to elevate the Longhorns and potentially get them over the Omaha hump.

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.